Unfathomable Riches in Christ - Forgiveness

Alright, as we go through the unfathomable riches of Christ, that's taken out of Ephesians chapter 3, one of the things we're wanting to do is to not just look at here all the things that we have in Christ, or who we are in Christ, but also to see their connectedness.

These are not just, oh, you get this and you get that and you get that. It would be somewhat like someone gave you all the parts to a car in a Christmas present, but pieces at a time. It would be nice to know, oh, I'm getting actually a whole car, right? that there is a connectedness between these things. In this case it's a whole lot better than a car, but it's important for us to look at it and see the connectedness between the different things that we have in Christ. So, in reviewing quickly, briefly, in the last lesson we saw an understanding of the identification truths is essential for grasping the meaning of our unfathomable riches in Christ.

And one of the things that we kind of use this as the gateway, if you will, was, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, Ephesians 1.3. And so just looking at that, where are our blessings?

In the heavenlies, in Christ. So location, location, location, but also person. It's personal, it's not just simply, here are the coordinates. So we got that. The other thing is, how many of the blessings, is there a certain percentage of the blessings in the heavenly places in Christ? 50? 40? 600? 100%, right?

Every spiritual blessing in heavenly places is in Christ. By the way, is it possible for God to bless you in other ways? Yeah, yeah. And a lot of times we'll say, well, God bless you. Well, spiritually speaking, he's already blessed me with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ, right? So the blessing would have some other character or dimension, right? Next, it says, in Christ we are redeemed and forgiven so as to be justified.

That was one of the key points of last week's message. So let's walk quickly through that. We're forgiven, which of course we're going to look at in more detail here today. And we're redeemed, so Ephesians 1.7, Colossians 3.14. Where are we forgiven and where are we redeemed? In Christ, right? So those are things that we have in Christ. It is because of those things that we can be justified. So it's justified, what does that mean?

Declared righteous. The quick definition is declared righteous. It's important, however, and one of the reasons for going through this in more detail, it's important to understand God just doesn't come up and say, oh, you're declared righteous. We need to be forgiven first. And we need to be redeemed. Are we declared righteous because we're fundamentally righteous? No. Why not? We didn't start that way, right? So we're declared righteous because God has dealt with the sins and we, by faith, have been forgiven of the sins and that was in Christ and we've been redeemed and that was in Christ.

Ephesians 1.7, Colossians 1.14. And because of that, we can be, we are qualified to be declared righteous. Not because we are fundamentally righteous, but because the sin issue has been dealt with. So we have several different passages to take a look at and then we will dig a little deeper.

Here is in the middle of your handout on page 1, Acts 10.43, a hymn. He's been speaking about Christ, so we put Christ in brackets. All the prophets bear witness that through his name everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins.

What if you don't believe in him? You don't receive forgiveness of sins, right? And that fits also with what we saw in Ephesians 1-7, Colossians 1-14. In him we have the redemption, the forgiveness of sins. And if we're not in Him, do we have those? We don't have them. So it's believing that's the basis for us being in Him. And only through believing then are we in Christ and therefore have the redemption, the forgiveness of sins. So of Him, Christ, all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins.

We're going to dig into that a little deeper, sure. All right, so let's talk about the believing. What does that believing look like? Believe that he died, was buried, rose. Right, and so Paul gave the content of what is to believe. in 1 Corinthians 15, specifically verses 3 and 4. And the way he put it was actually very similar to the way Peter put it in summary here. Everyone who believes in him believes what?

Believes that he, Christ the Son of God, who has died for our sins, was buried and rose again. That's the content to be believed. receives the forgiveness of sins. Ephesians 1-7-8, in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses.

That's literally the trespasses of us, the way the Greek puts it out. According to the riches of his grace which he lavished on us in all wisdom and insight. Of course, what we mentioned before is we're cutting into the middle of a long sentence. If Paul were to be graded down for a run-on sentence, he would definitely get an F, because verse 3 to verse 14 is the longest sentence in all of Greek literature. And verse 15 through 23 of Ephesians chapter 1 is the second longest sentence in all of Greek literature. I think once he said, you've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, he just got so excited his pen couldn't stop. Alright, so then, Colossians 3, 13 and 14 says something similar. He rescued us from the domain of darkness, transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, who is Christ, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

A very similar statement to Ephesians 1.7.

And Colossians 2.13 and 14, when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt, consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us. And he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Well, let's stop and soak that up just a little bit here. Having forgiven us all of our transgressions, why? How'd that happen? Verse 14, right?

Cancelled out the certificate of debt. By the way, that word means this is a handwritten debt note. I owe you. It's a handwritten debt note. It's the debtor actually saying, I owe you this much. When Paul wrote to Philemon, what was he writing about? Do you remember?

Was there a certain slave involved? Onesimus. Yes, here's Onesimus. What had Onesimus done wrong? He ran away. He ran away. And so Paul is trying to get Philemon to take Onesimus back. What could Philemon have done legally? Punishment all the way up to death, legally. But Paul's saying, you know, take him back. And then there's one other thing. Paul wrote a handwritten, I owe you this work. He says, whatever he owes, I'll pay it to you.

That's the handwritten note, the self-written note that this is talking about. a certificate of debt containing all the decrees against us, which was hostile to us. So this is not a get well card. This is not congratulations. This is a decree that has bad things in it.

And he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When we believe, what happens? That debt note gets nailed to the cross, it's terminated. It's all paid. This is why Jesus would use, in what is typically translated, it is finished. One Greek word means it's paid. And he expressed it with that one Greek word that says it's paid completely and totally permanently. It's all paid. So that certificate of debt, of what we owe, was nailed to the cross. Is your debt prohibited? Yes. Because you paid it? No. Because Christ paid the whole thing. He paid it all. Trespasses are sins, which is it. Trespasses are seen as being off the path of righteousness and fellowship, and a crossing over the line.

In sports, what happens if you cross over the line? There's usually some kind of penalty, or the ball goes out of play, or depending on what sport you're playing. So lines mean something, they're a definition, and it's a good thing that's just a game, right? This is not a game, but it's crossing the line with God that is outside, out of bounds, morally and spiritually. That's what that word is talking about, and it's also used of being on a path and trespasses being off the path. To fall alongside, but be off the path.

So it's crossing a line. Sins are looked upon as, here's the mark, here's the target, and missing the mark, it doesn't mean we were just slightly off center on the bullseye. We missed the whole thing. We've missed the whole thing. So there are two different ways of expressing a violation. And while we put it in kind of game or sports vocabulary, the truth is here that these are things that actually are serious. Why are they serious? If we're playing a game, we're just playing with people, right? And it's people that find rules, too.

Here, God is the definition of what is the target, and God is the very definition, He being righteous and just, of what is inbounds and outbounds. He is that definition. of righteousness and inbounds and out-of-bounds. And they were out-of-bounds and they missed the target. And the aim for the target was his righteousness. That's the standard.

Yes? Well, it affects our eternity. Yes, so this is much more serious than getting the penalty or the whistle or the red flag or however you want to So yeah, this is much more serious because as human beings we'll define sports where we've got, this is the way we play this sport and something is inbounds or out of bounds and we'll have ideas of penalties of some kind. or loss of points or something of that definition, but it's between us, right? And it's usually in a game, most of which, I have to say, the rules of the game and the parameters of the game are arbitrary. This is not arbitrary. It's God's character is the absolute standard, right? And they went out of bounds and they missed the target. And so it's much more serious than a game, right?

One more thing, and that is that scripture in various places has sinned as a debt owed to God. So one thing that comes out is this debt note that was nailed to the cross in Colossians 2, 12, excuse me, 13 and 14. The debt note that was nailed to the cross, that debt note is consistent with the way the rest of Scripture lays out sins as a debt owed to God. And we've got an example here at the bottom of page 1, Matthew 6, 12, and forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors. So, this is taken out of what's typically called the Lord's Prayer, right? So this is based on law, but it conveys the idea of the understanding that sins are a debt. Sins are a debt. And even when Jesus was on the cross, among his last words were, it is finished, or it's paid. The debt is paid. It's all paid. Now, now we turn over the page and it takes on a very different character here.

So why are trespasses and sin such a massive problem? Isn't this just, I mean he uses the analogy, here's the bounds or the boundary and you went out of the boundary and here's the target and you missed the target. They separate us from God. So one of the things is that when we play a human game and we have lines and we have targets, it's whether I win or lose in some human definition. But missing the mark or going out of bounds in this respect, spiritually and morally, those things separate us from God. Make a separation between ourselves and God.

Is there any other, I mean that's certainly correct, is there any other thing that you can add to that? I know God cannot look on sin. Ah, okay. So here's something, so you've heard it said that God cannot look upon sin. What does that mean? Is sin God's kryptonite? What's the deal? What is that expressing?

It's not acceptable. The truth is that God can look upon sin. However, God cannot look upon sin and remain neutral. God is not neutral with regards to sin. and say God cannot look upon sin. The truth is there are passages that you can find that describe him doing exactly that. He searches the hearts, for example, and what's he looking at? Sin. He cannot look upon sin and be neutral about it. He can't just shrug his shoulders and say, boys will be boys, girls will be girls, Fern will be Fern. So God cannot look upon sin and simply remain neutral and ambivalent about it. He can't do that. Yes, partially righteous. It's like someone who has a set of clothes on that's completely white, right?

And he's got one spot right about here, about the size of a hand, that's a big mud print. And I'm mostly clean, right? Well, okay. How much contamination does it take before you've got impurity? The analogy has been made, suppose I said, we're going to fit you a really, really nice steak. It's a choice cut of meat prepared very, very well. You just need to know that it has a drop of arsenic on it. Are you going to take that? I mean, it's a pretty good looking steak. It smells good. It might even taste good. Are you going to be happy with that? Probably not. At least not for very long.

So that one drop is going to be all it's going to take, if you know about that, and you're going to say, I don't want this steak. Why would I want a drop of arsenic on it? It doesn't matter how good the steak is. That disqualifies it as food. So trespasses and sins are a huge problem because we're not talking about a human game. We're not talking about human acceptance.

I keep remembering the community college that Nancy and I went to years ago. One of the people on the journalism staff went around and did a poll of students and asked them, you know, are you good enough to go to heaven? And 70% of them said they were better than average. You work out that statistic.

Anyway, it doesn't work, does it? And it's not human standard, and it's not how we judge it. It's God's absolute standard of righteousness, not our own. And all it takes is one thing, and we certainly have more than that, one thing, and all of a sudden you're disqualified. So they're a massive problem because of God's infinite and absolute righteousness. There's no way I can match up to that.

An analogy I might make is suppose I said, OK, we're going to have a swimming contest. And we're going to swim from San Francisco to Honolulu. And you've got to do it all in one shot, you know. And so, we say we're going to do that, you know, and Craig gets in there and he starts off and, you know, and we say, okay, well he's off to a good start, you know. And then we get David then, you know, going out there and, you know, he's off to a good start too. How many of them are going to make it?

You know, sorry. And it doesn't matter how good of a swim they are, nobody's going to make it. Nobody's going to do it. It is humanly impossible to get from here to there all in one direct single swim. It's not happening. And it doesn't matter who it is, it doesn't matter how well they try to prepare, not happening. Not getting there. It is beyond human capacity.

Next, why can't God just stop being so uptight about sin? Why can't God just let it go? You ever hear that? Oh, come on, just let it go. Why can't God just let it go? Why can't God just sort of shrug his shoulders? Okay, alright. But what's the deal about sin? Why can't God just get over it? Yeah?

Because he's holy and just can't look on sin. Yeah, and so, you know, what Winnie had expressed, God cannot look upon sin, is a way of recognizing that God's absolute holiness can't look upon sin and just do nothing. God's absolute holiness can't look upon sin and have God just go, eh, oh well. Right? Yes?

More than that, sin cannot exist in God's presence. God's righteousness won't destroy us. God is not one who can allow sin To remain, God is not one who can sit there and tolerate sin. And it's not that it's God's kryptonite, God suddenly becomes powerless, but rather God's character cannot be compromised, not even in the slightest degree.

Yes? It's like Mike said at the Great White Throne of Judgment. Somebody who is unrighteous, who has not believed in Christ, he will probably plead to go to hell just to get away from God's righteousness that is so oppressive to him. The absolute standard, none of us can match up to it. And here on earth we don't see it, we don't understand it.

I've had some people tell me that God uses evil to accomplish good, and that's a hard thing to agree with. He's absolutely perfect. Would he use evil to do good? About the closest we can come to say God works all things to good, even things we would perspective, it looks evil. Yeah, even things that say it's evil, but he works it out for the good that were conformed in the image of his son. But we have to be careful about, is God the author of evil? And the answer is no, right?

Question in the middle of the page there, was it really necessary for God to do something so drastic and profoundly painful as the crucifixion in order for us to have forgiveness of sins and trespasses? Couldn't an infinite and all-wise God have thought of something else? That was the question Jesus asked. Isn't that the question Jesus asked? Is there any other way? Is there any other way? Is there? Does God have a plan B and a plan C? What's the fallback position? What's plan B? Is Jesus like MacGyver? All of a sudden pulls out a pocket knife and a piece of bailing wire and defeats entire armies? Is God being resourceful and ingenious? Why this plan and none other? I don't think anyone can really ever understand the true aspect of that.

Because it has to do with payment in like kind. So flesh for flesh, blood for blood. Something to do with the blood because obviously that's mentioned so many times and the Old Testament you know, Leviticus, talking about all the sacrifices and blood for blood, and even in Genesis, God said, whoever takes a man's life, the payment is blood. So it all comes back to blood which is flesh, and so Can't we really understand that? So let's kind of work through some ideas, I think, in order to get some clarity on this.

Could God have just said, look, here's a lamb, I'm going to sacrifice this lamb, and that's going to take care of it. What's wrong with that claim? It's not eternal. Okay, so let's think, what's wrong with the idea that God is just going to sacrifice a lamb and we're done? Temporary. Okay, one is we see that in the sacrificial system and is that ever adequate? No. What's wrong with it? Temporary.

One is if it's a lamb, that doesn't really get it done, right? I have various references to Christ as being the Lamb, but that's really, here is a symbol, here is a temporary covering, Christ is Lamb, capital L, as one who truly fulfills God's requirement. Why does the Lamb fall short? What's wrong with the Lamb?

I don't know if this is it for sure, but it seems to me, of course, the plan was conceived long before the earth was formed, and this is what they had, and this is what's going to happen. But it seems to me like it has to be a like for a like, a human for a human, and the blood has to, you can't be, I mean, for years they did the animal sacrifices, which did basically nothing permanent, it was just... And they keep doing it over the years, right? Yeah, but this would be a like for like, a human for a human, and there couldn't be just any human, it would slow down the crowd, it had to be a perfect, the perfect human, and there was only one. Okay, Stan? Also, it's not eternal? Not eternal, okay, so this is, you know, This Lamb, even in earthly measure, has a limited light, right? So, yeah. The Lamb didn't have the same relationship with God as man.

So, let's kind of back up way back, Genesis chapter 1. God said amongst the Trinity, right? Let us create man in our image and likeness. And he breathed into him the breath of life, so it made a difference. So here, what you see is God created Adam in his own image. And that image, is that completely erased with sin? Or what does the Bible say? Somebody brought up earlier capital punishment in Genesis chapter 9. as, you know, if a man takes a life, his life shall be taken because he was made in the image of God.

The image of God remains. As a matter of fact, that statement of made in the image and or the likeness of God is continued on into the Old Testament and even into the New Testament all the way into the book of James. So the image of God remains. We could talk more about what that means, but the image of God remains and Christ had to be made, born, as man who was made in the image of God. Was a lamb ever made in the image of God?

No. So a lamb could be symbolic And when they say Christ is the Lamb, or Christ is our Passover, 1 Corinthians 5.7, Christ is our Passover, we're saying is Christ fulfills the symbol. A lamb can be symbolic, but only Christ, who was in the image of God, but perfect, could completely fulfill the requirements. Any lamb done in the interim could only look forward to God's perfect fulfillment.

Yes? I was going to say, it seems logical that it should be somebody or something that has blood and yet is also eternal. So it needs to be God and it needs to be man. Here is the God-man, right? And how come Lazarus died and was resurrected? How come that doesn't fulfill it? He's not the God-man, for one thing, right?

A number of people, actually, Old and New Testaments, they died and were resurrected. We can find multiple instances, both the Old and New Testaments, of that. But it's not God-man resurrected. having paid the price for sin. And they weren't resurrected to eternal life. Ah, yes, they were resurrected back to this life in these many instances, but not to eternal life.

They had to die again. They had to die again. The second death, you can imagine that. Not referring to the second death being like the fire, but dying again physically. So you have instances where it kind of comes close, but as the saying goes, no cigar, because it's not eternal. It's not an eternal resurrection. Those were all resurrections, Old and New Testament, outside of Christ, back to this life. Now, so, it couldn't just be a lamb. Let's try another approach.

Let's test another plan B. Christ is born of Mary right there in Bethlehem. All they do is they take him six miles to the north, there to Jerusalem, and taken right outside Jerusalem, back in those days, even to the spot where he ultimately was crucified. Why didn't they just have Joseph and Mary bring Jesus as an infant to be crucified just weeks after his birth? Why not? I mean, you've got Christ, right? If there's the God fan, why not just crucify this infant right there?

What's the problem with that? I think the Babylonians tried to do that as well as the Aztec and a whole bunch of other people. Certain things had to take place to fulfill the promise. So if you think this through, a lamb isn't going to cut it. And short-circuiting this thing by having Christ as an infant crucified doesn't get there. And one of the things is all the things that were prophesied to take place, not happen. Yeah, you have another idea?

Yeah, and he also had a ministry. Ah, he had a ministry. And so think about it. He had a ministry. When did he start that ministry? Around 30 years old, OK? And so time went on. That meant before he was ready to start, there were other things to be done, right? Yeah? And also, we have a high priest who knows our struggle. Ah, we have a high priest who knows our struggle, OK? As an infant, you could hardly say that that was the case, right? Yeah. Yeah. Well, you take all the apostles and their jobs and spread the word, too. Right.

So that wouldn't have happened. So that wouldn't have happened, and he didn't just say, hey, let's spend the next three days together and then I'll go get crucified, right? He spent instead of what? Three years. Not three days, but three years with them. and then is crucified. And so not only just selecting the apostles, but spending time with them was a required part of what took place. So you couldn't even short-circuit and keep it simple. Hey, let's have them get crucified and that's it.

Ah, everything is described in the Gospels. What if you took the Gospels and snipped out everything past Christ's infancy? You wouldn't have much, right? You'd have a really short story. So, and you certainly wouldn't need four Gospels to give a kind of a stereo explanation of things. So, you start to think about it, boy, there'd be a whole lot missing.

We couldn't just have, you know, here's Joseph and Mary, they take Jesus up to Jerusalem after a few weeks and have him get crucified and then we're all done. There'd be a whole bunch that wouldn't be there. Didn't he have to live righteously? Ah, he had to live righteously and demonstrate that, but also, as was mentioned, to have gone through these various things and live righteously in the midst of that. He also had to go through the intense suffering to show the magnitude of sin. Yes. Excellent. Yeah. So let's think about this.

Are there things that Jesus simply could not have done as an infant and did. An infant just couldn't do that. So it took Jesus going through growing up so that the things that he said made sense. Gary? Couldn't heal. It would be odd to have this infant. Wow, this infant is really an amazing baby. He was on healing people, left and right. He can't even eat bread, but here he is breaking it up and reproducing it, right? So, yeah. It also gave an example. He was the livestock.

He was born, he was taught, he lived, he had troubles, he had woes, he had all kinds of things. So for identification, For us, as a person, he lived the life, and then at the end of it, that was his ultimate goal, was the crucifixion and the salvation, but he lived the things that we go through. Yeah, so everything that went on there makes sense in terms of if we kind of back and say, Just think of all that would be missing, all the things that we look at and we say, well these are essential, not just optional, or not just nice little extras. Yeah, Stan? He also had to have the struggle with the antagonist or Satan, the ruler of this world, and he couldn't have done that as a child. Not as an infant, right?

Matthew 4.4, going out into the wilderness and being tested in the constant struggle with the powers. So here's, yeah, wrestling with Satan and Satan's strategies and efforts to try to thwart and divert what he was doing. As you look at this and see it as well, Jesus repeatedly said, you know, the Father who sent me, the Father who sent me, and making reference to the Father, I do what the Father tells me to do, I say what the Father tells me to say.

And he couldn't testify to that as an infant, right? And he couldn't get that message across as an infant. I was asked this question, did Christ depend upon the Father and the Holy Spirit as He came to earth and was born and lived as a man. So that dependence is an illustration and an example for us. So there were things that had to take place in order for him to be an example for us in those respects. And that couldn't happen if it was all short-circuited by making it just a few weeks of infancy, and then he gets crucified. So as you start to look at it, oh, God really couldn't have done that differently, could he? This really was necessary. There was no plan B and plan C. that there were not other options. Oh, I'll do this animal instead of Jesus.

All this trouble and difficulty, let's just make it quick and short and to the point and just crucify Christ in a few weeks and get this over with. By the way, wouldn't that have been easier on Mary? You can make an argument either way. Yeah, as you look at it, what's easier, any criteria for anything, right?

But yeah, he went through what he went through and it was certainly by God's intent. Alright, so let's take a look at the last question there. Since Jesus died for the sins of the whole world, wasn't everybody forgiven at that point? So first John 2.2 and then you can find other passages that reflect a similar message and that he died for the sins of the whole world and so does that mean everybody's forgiven? Why not? What falls short? Why isn't everyone forgiven even after he died for the sins of the whole world? What's the problem there? Belief. What's that? Belief. Belief?

Well, in essence, he did die for everyone. He did die for everyone. But the believers need to take an action. So, do we have to live worthy of his No. You're saying no. We don't have to live worthy in order for the salvation to be, that forgiveness to be effective.

Hmm. Well, the example that J. Vernon McGee always gives is an example of the chair, or this pew we're sitting on. Do we trust in him enough to sit on him? Do we trust in him enough to take us to heaven with him? We don't even trust in him, we have to put ourselves in his shoes.

There is a practical, not just a hypothetical sense of it. So let's try some other things. Why can't I just invite Jesus into my heart? What does that even mean? Yeah, and why would he want to go in my heart? Without his having dealt with the sin issue, he wouldn't want to be in my heart. But the fact is that once you believe in him, my mind stops here.

You were baptized into Christ by the Holy Spirit, and that's the key to the door. You were baptized into, placed into, or as Romans 7, 1-2-6 puts it, you were joined to Christ? Would you use a word that means married to Christ? You were joined to Christ?

And that was essential. That was critical and essential. So, as we look at this, so Christ's death on the cross, he says it's all paid? Isn't that enough? Is there anything short or inadequate about his We'd say, well wait a minute, you're not forgiven yet? Why are you not forgiven? You have the opportunity for forgiveness. So forgiveness is available because of Christ's death to everyone.

In that sense we can say that everyone is savable. Savable. but the salvation is granted only to those who believe. But one of the illustrations that we could use is, okay, here's everyone ever born on the planet and are put into this huge prism cell.

And somebody walks in, and they've got checks that just pick some extraordinary outrageous number, like checks made out All you gotta do is sign it. Money's in the account. Four trillion dollars for each person. It's an amount none of us could pay ourselves, right? So each one of us, there's four trillion dollars in the account.

And one person He's handed the check, looks at it, meh, throws it on the ground. Another person said, eh, think about it, stick it in his pocket. I'll wait till I get older. Somebody else takes it and says, oh, it's a bunch of rubbish, and just tears it to pieces, throws the pieces on the ground. Somebody else just kind of ponders, thinks about it, looks at it, doesn't take a check. But another person says, yeah, and takes the check, countersigns it, and hands it in and walks out the door. I'm out of here. Now, did everybody have a check with money in the account? Yeah. The money's in the account for every single person on the planet. But only the one who believes is the one who takes advantage of the payment made for everyone.

Five-point Calvinism has the L in TULIP, limited atonement, that says only those who are elect and chosen are the ones for whom His payment was made. And if you're not among the elect and chosen, Christ didn't die for you. And so you are not brought to life, and you're not given the gift of faith, and you can't believe, and you're not going to be saved.

So is that, in a sense, giving permission for God to do a spiritual work? When you say that. So is this permission? Is it permission, or is that not quite the right word? Permission, I think, gives a higher, gives us a degree of being equal to the Lord. OK. That being equal to or even having authority over the Lord. Right. He doesn't need permission. He doesn't need permission, so what does he count as? Okay, this is what it takes in order for me to carry out everything else here in order for this payment to be applied. But we have free will, so we can either choose one way or the other.

Right. So it is a choice, isn't it? It is a choice. It's definitely that. But rather than permission, that's why the Bible uses the word belief. Do I believe, and to use the analogy that J. Bernard McGee so aptly chose, do I believe so much as to sit at has to sit in it. The chair or the pew, right? You're sitting in it. You believe it so much as to put your trust in it.

And do I believe in God's payment through Christ for my sins, and God says, so it's not permission, but it's simply saying, I agree with so as to rely upon what God has done, and God does the rest. I agree with it, we agree with it, which is a little different from permission. Permission says you then have a privilege granted as if God had a privilege granted.

Right. And so instead it's saying I believe and I will accept everything that you have done by grace. Yeah. So you mentioned TULIP. Yes. Can you explain the Calvinist argument of double jeopardy? Do you understand that? Yes. So the bottom line is that the Calvinism, which by the way they taught at the seminary what to, Calvinism teaches what is by the acronym TULIP. And the L in the TULIP acronym, we don't have time to go through it since the first buzzer already went off, but the L in the TULIP is limited atonement.

And so you have various arguments put forth that somehow limited atonement makes sense. The only problem is the double jeopardy argument is one of them. Another one is that God wouldn't waste the Christ payment on those who wouldn't believe and arguments like that. Any of the arguments that might be used to support it are essentially useless because it's what does the Bible say? not what legal principle can I concoct, double jeopardy being included, what does the Bible say?

And I have to doctor up the whole Bible to make everything fit what is Calvinism. And again, it seems like this is a mission, and so this worldview in our limited logic, how things should work, or agree, Yeah, instead of saying, you know, how do I reduce this to some human thought, which is arrogant. It's basically our penal system. Yeah, we've got our penal system, and that's not the way it works. God has laid out how this thing works.

And so I don't take John 3.16 and doctor it up. For God so loved the world of the elect and chosen that he gave his only begotten Son only for the elect and chosen. that whosoever believes, which will only be the elect and chosen, shall have everlasting life, because they are elect and chosen. Right?

Or 1 John 2.2, he died for our sins, not only ours, but the sins of the whole world of the elect and chosen. I've got to go through scripture and doctor up scripture. And if I'm doing that repeatedly, that's incredibly arrogant. That's unfathomably arrogant for me to say, OK, you reveal things in your word, but I need to fix it.

That doesn't fly. So even though they taught that repeatedly at the seminar I went to, uh-uh, I'm not going there. I don't need any isms. I don't need Calvinism. I don't need Arminianism. I don't need Botulism. I don't need any of that stuff. I just don't need it.

I need what God revealed and what God did because that's exactly what I need. I don't need to doctor it up and I don't need to use human logic and human parameters to doctor up the Word of God. God revealed it, how he intended us to understand it, not as I mess around with human thinking.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that as we look at this, that you have indeed given us forgiveness, and we receive that. We have it because we have believed and are in you. And Lord, we do give you thanks just for your amazing grace. It is amazing. And also the way you did things, though we can work our way through them and make some sense of them, we also want to believe it as you've revealed it and not as we would hope to come up with a human rationale for things. So we trust what you have revealed, we trust what you have done in and through your son. We just thank you that you love us and care for us so much that it will take us forever to come to understand the depth of your amazing grace. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.